In an attempt to revive the famous eighties game ‘Larry Quest’ or ‘Leisure Suit Larry’ an Israeli game company called Adventure Mob managed to raise more than $150,000 in a single day and are now aiming to raise at least $500,000 in just a month. In order to do this they went about gathering the money in a different way than you may be used to. After trying without much success to raise funding from venture capitalist, angel investors and strategic partners, Israeli entrepreneurs Mob Oren bar and Tal Oded Sharon, who is also CEO, thought of trying a fairly new method called crowdfunding .
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The entrepreneurs marketed directly to the huge number of fans of the bestselling, greatest classics and quest games ever asking them to support the new version of the game, which will probably released in October 2012. Thousands of fans from the USA, Europe and Israel jumped at the opportunity to help this dream come true. The value of investments varied with an average of $15 that secured a digital copy of the game that will be released. Investors could also take advantage of other opportunities like a chance to take part in the creation of the game or the chance to get products under the ‘Larry Quest’ label. More than 3900 people chipped in so far and the entrepreneurs state that a few thousand of dollars are added every few minutes as word of mouth functions in favor of the project, the mini-investors telling other friends about the opportunity.
The game will be created with the help of Luo, the original creator who is part of the project and most of the people that worked at the original version of the game. The new version will have updated graphics, dubbing for various European languages and will add a mix of old and new, but will fit the requirements of the 21st century and will aim to be available on devices such as Iphone, Ipad touch or other Android devices. PCs and even consoles are also aimed.
Crowdfunding is an excellent way to raise funding and it offers several benefits, as the demand for the product is known in advance. In this case the entrepreneurs aimed at the same audience as 30 years ago, people that played the game with their parents and now will be able to play it with their children. The supporters are very unlikely to change their mind in the process and can give accurate and valuable feedback to the company. In this way, developers are also much more committed to the users than they would have been if the founding source were different.
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To reach as many supporters as possible Adventure Mobs started extensive marketing efforts, including a recent conference in San Diego, which brought several articles in big computer games sites. They also established a partnership with Replay Games American, which obtained the right to produce the game.
Peter
